Telecommunication system cables normally employed in transmitting signals include many small diametered insulated wires surrounded in an outer jacket. These cables are used both indoors and outdoors and can be suspended horizontally or vertically. When used outdoors the cables may even be buried underground. Thus, the cable must be sealed against moisture and other environmental hazards. Often due to line failure or routine maintenance one or more wires must joined or spliced together. This necessitates violating the integrity of the cable to make such repair or splice. After entering the cable the exposed cable splice is resealed. Typically, these resealing techniques include wrapping a liner around the cable and pouring an encapsulating material around the spliced conductors to provide a moisture barrier therearound. The entire cable splice is then wrapped or covered, thereby providing an outer protective jacket. Effective sealing in this matter provides protection from adverse enviromental hazards that are present in areas where the cable is used. It is apparent that in order to provide such complete moisture seal it becomes necessary to insure that the encapsulating material completely surrounds the spliced conductors of the cable. Methods known in the art to seal cable splices typically include placing a liner around the cable splice and leaving a portion thereof open to accept the encapsulating material, which is usually provided in a viscous form. The encapsulating material is poured into the pocket formed by the liner and flows into and around the spliced conductors. However, since the liner is adhesively coated on the inside surface, the liner may adhere to the underside of the cable conductors and thereby prevent complete flowing of the viscous encapsulating material around the conductors. In order to prevent the liner from directly adhering to the under surface of the cable conductors, a web spacer may be employed directly on the adhesive liner to prevent direct adhesion of the liner to the under surface of the cable conductors.
While this method alleviates the problem of the liner adhering directly to the under surface of the cable conductors to some extent, it does not fully provide for the free flow of the viscous encapsulating material completely around the cable conductors as the cellular webbing, itself, adheres directly to the liner and when placed in close proximity to the cable conductors and impedes the flow of the encapulating material therearound.
Another approach is to use a non-adhesive liner with a webbing supported thereon. However, it is apparent that installation of this device is difficult in that the liner is not self-supporting around the cable splice. Further, liners and webbing combination of this type are usually provided in fixed lengths and width, thereby not accommodating a wide range of applications. A liner and webbing construction so described, is that sold as part of the splice closure system sold by Raychem Corporation, of Menlo Park, Calif., under the tradename XAGA 1600.
A further device known in the art used as a spacer between the cable conductors and the adhesively coated liner is an elongate relatively rigid plastic sheet having a plurality of openings therethrough. The plastic sheet is formed to have a series of undulations therealong which spaces the adhesive liner wrapped therearound from the conductors of the cable splice. However, in order to employ the undulated profile this spacer must be substantially rigid preventing any degree of flexability in the longitudinal direction of the cable. Thus, once fully enclosed the cable splice area will be substantially rigid having little flexability. It is, therefore, desirous to provide a spacer web which can be separately supported on the cable splice area apart from the liner. The spacer web should permit flexing of the cable in its longitudinal direction.